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Housing: making “the dream of ownership a reality”

This budget’s big finale was all about housing, as Hammond stated successive governments failed to build enough homes. He promised to make “the dream of home ownership a reality for all.”

He pledged to build 300,000 new homes a year until the mid 2020s, committing £15.3 billion of additional funding in this budget, taking the total investment in housing to around £44 billion.

The government will also create five new garden towns, targeting areas as part of a holistic growth plan, in particular the ‘Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge growth corridor’.

An enquiry into planning permissions and housing will start today, aiming to deliver a report on housing, land access and planning permission before the Spring Statement in 2018.

It will investigate if development companies are speculatively not building on land for commercial reasons, and if this is the case the Chancellor has resolved to create incentives to encourage construction to begin, and raised the possibility of forced government purchase if land is being withheld.

Chancellor Hammond was keen to emphasise that housing development will focus on urban areas “where people want to live and where the jobs are”, making best use of urban land whilst protecting green belts, to build “high-quality, high-density homes, in city centres and near transport hubs.”

And finally, in an attempt to tackle empty properties in high demand areas, he announced plans to give councils the power to charge a 100% council tax top-up on homes left empty.

A new railcard for 25-30 year olds

Chancellor Hammond announced there would be new railcard offering discounts to under 30s.

The railcard will be available from spring 2018, but it was not explained whether this would be an extension of the third-off discount, holders of the 16-25 railcard enjoy on off-peak travel, or something else.

Tax and pay

There wasn’t much of a focus on income tax and pay rates, but the Chancellor did confirm that come April 2018 there will be the following changes:

An increase in minimum wage to £7.83 per hour

The tax-free personal allowance will go up to £11,850

The 40% tax threshold will increase to £46,350

Investing in broadband and mobile infrastructure

The government allotted £500 million to invest in “a range of initiatives”, including full-fibre broadband, 5G mobile networks and artificial intelligence. The government will also launch a new £190 million Challenge Fund that local areas can bid for to speed up the rollout of full-fibre networks.

Additionally, as part of their £1.7 billion ‘Transforming Cities’ initiative, £385 million will be committed to projects to develop 5G and full-fibre broadband. Furthermore, £30 million will go toward improving digital connectivity on Trans-Pennine rail in North England.

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